Saturday, 31 December 2011

and greetings from the small town of Stonehaven in north eastern Scotland, where in a few hours the world famous Fireball Ceremony will begin. It's exciting, quite dangerous, accompanied by a band of bagpipes and a troop of drummers.

And just to end this amazing year, can I share a miracle that happened a just a few days ago.

Please believe me, if you don't already, miracles happen. Spontaneous healing happens. Realignment in relationships can happen anywhere, and at any moment. And that's exactly what's happened in my personal life, on Thursday.

Too personal yet to share, but universal to all who have been seriously estranged from a loved one for years. This has been a real Christmas ( re birth of love) miracle. The joy in my heart that my personal, tired, 'war zone' has miraculously, completely evaporated, is indiscribable. All that old pain and anger and disappointment on both sides simply does not exist any more. It's gone. How can I be sure ? There are no certainties in life, except one day we will all die, so I'm trusting the bigger picture, as always. Shifts happen. Miracles exist. Thoughts become things.

May each one of you also experince your hearts greatest longing, and may this New Year bring you closer to your deepest most beautiful self. Namaste to everyone of you.

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

'You have to make mistakes to find out who you aren’t. You take the action, and the insight follows: You don’t think your way into becoming yourself...

To love yourself as you are is a miracle, and to seek yourself is to have found yourself, for now. And now is all we have, and love is who we are.'
Anne Lamott.

Photos by Cristian Calderon.
To read the whole article by Anne,visit Ian Lawton at his www.soulseeds .com

Also from soulseeds.com...

Vietnamese Zen Teacher Thich Nhat Hahn offers this reminder:

“Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech . . . I vow to cultivate loving speech. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering . . . I vow to learn to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self-confidence, joy, and hope. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain, and not to criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or community to break.”

This was my speech for the opening of our fund raiser, La Chocolatada, Orgiva, Spain 2011. This was our fourth fund raiser for these special children in Peru.

I would love to talk to you for hours about the children I’ve met in Peru. Stories about their lives, but I’ll keep it short; I’ll just share one story. Our time is limited this morning.

Three young sisters walked 4 hours to Washi’s soup kitchen to get a free toothbrush each, and a tube of toothpaste.
Thousands were to be donated by an American company. Something went wrong with the arrangements, and the toothbrushes didn’t arrive in Ollantaytambo.

The little girls were very philosophical about this disappointment.
I bought them some fruit and chocolate, a bag of rice and some vegetables to take home to their mum, and we went for a little picnic before they began their long walk home.

When I asked the 12 year old what she wanted to do when she left school she told me with a huge smile:
“I’m going to be an astronaut !”

Her huge dream made my heart sing, and I thought if I can help her in any way, I will.

Life in the rainy season and when it snows is very hard for these little girls, and all the families in the Sacred Valley. Many children don't have shoes. Thousands of families in this part of Peru don't have electricity.

They don't have water in their primitive homes, and certainly they don't have bathrooms, like the villages of Las Alpujarras here in Spain, 50 years ago.

But what they do have is their faith in Pachamama, Mother Earth. Their belief in her goodness is all encompassing.

I’ve seen groups of young children in the high Andes making ceremonies to Pachamama, asking for fertility for their goats and sheep.

We can learn so much from these very spiritual people, in so many ways.

Today, before the raffle and the auction of promises, I’m asking you to be as generous as you can and help us put smiles on many little faces this Christmas.
Paskay.org has a custom of bringing hot chocolate, a sweet bread and a small gift to thousands of children living in remote villages in the Sacred Valley of Peru.

Please help us maintain this tradition.

What drives me to support Carlos in his work is that these children do not have equal access to resources.
But,
they have precious resources that are beyond our understanding.

This is not about us being rich and them being poor. No. It's about us showing them that we care.

Thank you for listening, have a lovely morning, and Happy Christmas to you all.

Soon the child's clear eye is clouded over by ideas and opinions, preconceptions and abstractions. Simple free being becomes encrusted with the burdensome armor of the ego. Not until years later does an instinct come that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn. The sun glints through the pines, and the heart is pierced in a moment of beauty and strange pain, like a memory of paradise. After that day, we become seekers.

Peter Matthiessen

Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.

Marianne Williamson

A huge, huge thank you to everybody who made our fund raiser,La Chocolatada, (for children in Peru) such a success.

A special thank you to Papa Noel who brought along his beautiful little daughter, and promised to come back next year.

Saturday, 3 December 2011

Gandhi said,
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

This is my friend Washi, one of the organizers of the Chocolatadas in the Sacred Valley in Peru, and the person who took these beautiful photos.

These children are given unequal access to resources.

"Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another"
-Author Unknown

To read about huge hearted Washi Gibaja's work with his people, see : www.pathoftheheart. org

We are fund raising here in Spain to support his soup kitchen for street children in Ollantaytambo, as well as many Chocolatadas in the same area.

If you would like to support Washi's work, you can make a donation through the path of the heart website.

This year, the community of Orgiva in Andalucia Spain, is also supporting Chocolatadas in Bolivia. These are for street children, under the umbrella of www.compatrono. Ivan Nogales ,the director( an Akosha Fellow), with many young people, has created a truly wonderful arts center for street children and youth at risk in El Alto, Bolivia.

Tuesday, 29 November 2011

The money from our Chocolatada fund raiser will join other donations to fund the bringing of hot chocolate, a sticky bun and a small gift to thousands of underprivileged children in Peru and Bolivia. 'La Chocolatada' is a hugely popular much looked forward to custom in these countries. On Saturday 10th Dec we will have our 4th Chocolatada fund raiser in Orgiva, at the Upper campsite, 11am-2pm. Father Christmas will be there ! Come and support us, and help us put a smile on thousands of young faces.

About Me.

Hi, I’m Meg Robinson an Irish/Dutch artist writer with Scottish connections. I’ve lived in sunny Andalucía, Spain for 22 years. Recently a DNA test informed me I’m half Jewish Lithuanian. That was a surprise. Having been adopted I had no idea where my father came from. Mystery half solved !
I’ve travelled extensively in South America. Now 3 years in remission from a no hope cancer prognosis , I’m loving life more than ever. I look for the scared and the awesome in the everyday, and delight in sharing these stories in my writing and drawings.
I’ve always travelled off the beaten track alone, because that’s where I meet (extra)ordinary people and things happen! This summer I’m making a pilgrimage to visit the land of my Lithuanian ancestors.